Status and Constraints of Backyard Poultry Farming amongst Tribal Community of Jorhat District in Assam

The study was conducted at five randomly selected tribal villages of Jorhat district in Assam to identify the various constraints faced by the poultry keepers during the backyard poultry production. The analyses of data revealed that majority of respondents were of medium age group, had middle or primary level of education and lived in medium sized joint family. Agriculture was the major occupation and had medium livestock holding with more than 6 years of poultry farming experience. Poultry rearing was mainly tended by women folks with a flock size of 5-25 birds, reared in semi-intensive system with little supplementary feeding in terms of broken rice, kitchen waste etc. The production level observed was very low. Natural hatching was the main source of chicks. No systematic care was taken with regard to the diseases management and vaccination of the birds was also not carried out in all the villages surveyed. During disease outbreak, an ingenious method of isolating the healthy birds in temporary sheds constructed in the agricultural fields far away from the homestead is prevalent in the area. Direct marketing of birds was prevalent in the study area although middlemen also existed. The study revealed that high incidence of poultry disease, lack of suitable germplasm, non-availability of day old chicks round the year, lack of feed supply and limited scavenging area, lack of technical know-how, attack by predators, poor economic condition of the farmers and weak market linkage were the most serious constraints faced by the farmers. Introduction of hybrid variety suitable for backyard farming, skill up gradation on feeding, housing and disease prevention management, credit linkage and establishment of market linkages can bring about a significant improvement in sustainable poultry production of the down trodden tribal communities in Assam.